Characters / Jojo Rabbit

See here for the book's character sheet.

Johannes "Jojo" Betzler

Johannes "Jojo" Betzler

^{Nazi outfit} 

Played By: Roman Griffin Davis

The protagonist. An ordinary, if slightly dim, 10-year-old Aryan boy living in Nazi Germany, Jojo is a blind fanatic for Nazi ideology and views Adolf Hitler as his imaginary best friend.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: The Caging Skies Johannes was a genuine Nazi, and wholly believed in their ideology. Though Jojo here initially is devoted to Hitler and a committed Nazi, he comes to reject Nazism, and is actually a sweet kid under all the layers of propaganda and indoctrination.
• Age Lift: His book counterpart is an adult. In the movie, he's ten.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: While it's said that Jojo's father is off fighting in the war and is later revealed to actually be part of the resistance, we don't ever learn for certain if he's alive, as the film ends right after the town gets liberated. In Caging Skies though, he's sent to a work camp.
• Animal Motifs: Rabbits. His derisive nickname at the Hitler Youth camp is "Jojo Rabbit", and it becomes a nickname that he becomes increasingly proud of throughout the film. Imaginary Hitler gives him a pep talk about the nickname by invoking the rabbit's "mighty" traits (being hard-working tricksters who survive the harshness of the wild by outwitting stronger animals). It quickly becomes clear that the name reflects the animal's innocent and peaceful nature as Jojo becomes increasingly disillusioned with Nazi propaganda.
• Anti-Hero: He begins the movie as a fanatical Nazi-loving Hitler Youth. He's also rather rude and stuck-up to his mother whenever she pushes back on his Nazism. It's mostly just because Nazi propaganda has worked well on him. He proves to have a better side to him once he learns that what he's been taught is wrong.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Jojo's scars are quite minor and don't really make him look ugly, in spite of his insecurities.
• Boisterous Weakling: Although he boasts of being a member of the "superior race", he is still a little kid with a limp who can be easily overpowered by even an underfed teenager.
• Broken Pedestal: Jojo's diminishing admiration of Hitler comes crashing down when he finds out the real Hitler killed himself right before the invasion, leaving his own people to fend for themselves.
• Cheerful Child: He's generally a sweet, kind, and jovial kid.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Inverted. By the start of the film, Jojo has already been brainwashed into the Jew-hating fanatic the Nazi Party expects him to be. His Character Development and friendship with Elsa help him realize he's fighting on the wrong side.
• Fan Boy: He's one for Adolf Hitler, with Jojo's collection of posters causing an otherwise unsettling Gestapo officer to perk up and compliment his interior decorating.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Much of the film's Black Comedy stems from Jojo's ignorant espousal of Nazi ideology and his complete lack of self-awareness to how ridiculous it sounds.
• Good Is Dumb: Downplayed. Jojo's a bit dim, but is at heart a sweet kid who's been indoctrinated by the Nazis' Propaganda Machine.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Jojo includes gratuitous drawings of Elsa's fiance Nathan being tortured and humiliated in his book "Yoo-hoo Jew" because of his Precocious Crush on her.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A blond haired blue-eyed Aryan boy who intensely admires Hitler, but refuses to kill a rabbit and is generally a sweet kid with good intentions under the pressures of wartime Germany.
• Heel–Face Turn: Over the course of the movie, Jojo goes from being a blind follower of Nazism to telling Hitler to fuck off and kicking him out the window.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Jojo tries to be the best Nazi he can be, but anytime he's faced with any opportunity to be cruel, he either fails to follow through or his sympathy gets the best of him.
• Idiot Hero: Jojo is not very bright, but his moments of idiocy can be justified by the fact that he's only ten (and perhaps the concussion he suffered from the stick grenade).
• Informed Deformity: Invoked. Other characters frequently mock him for his scars after the grenade accident, but they're barely noticeable and not nearly as bad as you'd expect. It ties into his eugenics indoctrination, which taught kids that all physical deformities, no matter how minor, are equally impure.
• Innocent Bigot: He has immensely anti-Semitic views at the beginning of the film, but meeting Elsa brings out a kinder side to him that reveals that his prejudice stems from the ever-present Nazi propaganda he's immersed in. By the end of the movie, he fully comprehends the cruelty and stupidity of his former beliefs.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: A hilariously naive 10-year-old with big blue eyes.
• Minion with an F in Evil: As we see in Jojo's Hitler Youth training, he just doesn't have it in him to be the remorseless killer the Nazis expect him to be, despite his devotion to the cause. See If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten! on the main page for more details.
  Elsa: You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a 10-year-old kid, who likes swastikas and likes dressing up in a funny uniform, and wants to be part of a club.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Jojo fabricates a letter, purportedly from Elsa's fiancé, that breaks up with her, which reduces her to tears (not because she believed it — Jojo does not do a good impression — but from its mean-spiritedness). Rather than take pleasure in his victory, he regrets his behavior and makes up a second letter that takes back some of the nastier things he wrote.
  • Jojo gets a double-whammy towards the end. First, the normally Affably Evil Hitler goes on a violent and unhinged rant after Jojo hides Elsa from the Gestapo, which lets Jojo see Hitler for what he truly is — a vicious, monstrous fascist. Secondly, there's the War Is Hell moment with the American-Russian invasion, where Jojo really takes in all the cruel reality of the Nazis using child soldiers, including his friend Yorki, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off the inevitable defeat that the Nazis tried so fervently to deny, a denial that he fell for at first.
• Nazi Protagonist: Jojo is a member of the Hitler Youth during the final months of WWII. Subverted by the end, after he survives being a Child Soldier; he rejoices at Hitler's fall with Elsa.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Jojo's full name is "Johannes", but it's only said twice in the entire film. He calls himself Jojo, and even high-ranking Nazi and Gestapo agents are more likely to use the nickname Jojo than his full first name Johannes.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Invoked and later subverted. Growing up with Nazi propaganda everywhere has made Jojo very antisemitic. However, after befriending Elsa, he starts to realize how wrong his prejudices were, and eventually turns his back on the Nazis.
• Precocious Crush: He develops a huge crush on Elsa, who's seven years older than him. She comes to see him as a surrogate little brother.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Despite his blind fanaticism to the Nazi cause at the beginning of the movie, his mother and Elsa can see a Hidden Heart of Gold deep within, and he undergoes a Heel–Face Turn over the course of the movie.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Jojo's entire story arc revolves around him going from a blindly devoted Hitler Youth to realizing just how evil the Nazi party truly is.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Although the film repeatedly stresses that Jojo's behavior and temperament are very un-Nazi-like, his blind fanaticism towards Nazi iconography is noted to be a little extreme even by Hitlerjugend standards. Most other characters have long since grown indifferent to the Nazi ideology due to the film being set at the end of the war.

Rosie Betzler

Rosie Betzler

Played By: Scarlett Johansson

Jojo's loving mother.

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• Adaptational Badass: She's a timid housewife in Caging Skies, but an Almighty Mom here.
• Adaptation Name Change: Her name was Roswita in the book.
• Almighty Mom: She's not afraid of kicking Captain Klenzendorf in the balls and slapping him around a couple of times for the sake of ensuring her son is treated properly. Klenzendorf is terrified of her after this, and he and his aide cower and shrink away from her in the scene at the pool.
• Composite Character: Unlike in the novel, Rosie in the film is Jojo's only family member left, so she incorporates character traits of the father and grandmother from the book as well.
• Doomed Moral Victor: Standing up for the right thing leads to her being hanged along with other political dissidents.
• Foreshadowing: Several lingering shots focus intently on Rosie's distinctive shoes, most glaringly the scene at the swimming pool where she cavorts on a ledge above Jojo, with only her shoes and some of her ankles visible. Jojo discovers his mother's hanging body from the shoes up and the rest of her body isn't shown, and for the last time we see her from Jojo's eye level at her feet.
• The Gadfly: Rosie enjoys playfully teasing her son, retorting to his self-loathing remarks by gushing about how she herself is cursed with being 'incredibly attractive', and responds to his blind fanaticism by pointing out the ridiculousness of what he's saying. At one point, she even ties his shoes together and jokes about leaving him behind.
• Glamorous Single Mother: Rosie is a downplayed example. She isn't technically a single mother, as she is married, but her husband is off fighting in the war, so she is her son's sole parent during the events of the movie. Nevertheless, she is played by Scarlett Johansson, and no effort is made to hide her good looks. This is lampshaded and Played for Laughs, as she herself notes how attractive she is.
• Good Parents: Depicted as a wonderful mother for Jojo. She hates the fact that a child as young as Jojo is being corrupted by the hatred of the Nazi party, and does her best to help him find more comfort in compassion and optimism.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Rosie is as blonde as Jojo, and is a very compassionate person who opposes the Nazis as part of the German resistance.
• Iconic Item: There's a lot of focus on her distinctive leather shoes early on. It's how the film pulls off a Gory Discretion Shot when she is hanged — only her shoes are seen.
• Iron Lady: Captain Klenzendorf fears her wrath.
• Meaningful Appearance: She wears a really nice pair of leather shoes, shown in great detail while she's seen dancing, jumping about or walking around. Jojo recognizes in horror it is her who was executed when he sees these shoes on a hanging corpse.
• La Résistance: She is secretly a part of the German Allied resistance against the Nazis, and she hides Elsa, a runaway Jew, in her house to protect her. Jojo is mostly unaware of this part of her double life...until he finds her corpse hanging in the town square.
• Parents as People: Rosie is a very kind and brave woman, but her work for La Résistance keeps her away from home, even though she's Jojo's only present family member. She's also under a lot of pressure from doing very dangerous work and trying to raise Jojo to not be a Nazi while keeping what she's doing a secret from him. She's doing the right thing at great personal risk, but she also gets busted and dies. She doesn't know that Jojo knows about Elsa, so she probably died thinking he'd be left all alone until his dad came home (and she doesn't know if he's alive either). Once again, you can't fault her courage and conviction, but she's bringing a lot of risk onto herself and Jojo, because as Elsa points out, he'd be killed too if they found out about her.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: She casually mentions this trope. While Jojo is lamenting that he is ugly, Rosie chides him by saying that some people never get to be ugly, and that she herself has been cursed with being "incredibly attractive."
• Teasing Parent: She enjoys playfully teasing her son, retorting his self-loathing remarks by gushing about how she herself is cursed with being "incredibly attractive", and responding to his blind fanaticism by pointing out the ridiculousness of what he's saying. At one point she even ties his shoes together and jokes about leaving him behind.

Elsa Korr

Elsa Korr

Played By: Thomasin McKenzie

A Jewish runaway hiding in secret in Jojo's house.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: The Elsa Korr of Caging Skies was more submissive and unwilling to use physical force against Johannes.
• Ambiguously Christian: Despite having a Jewish background, she lists Jesus Christ as the "greatest of the Jews", implying at the very least some level of admiration not typical of Jews.
• Badass Boast: In response to Jojo trying to make a case for the Aryan race's superiority, she delivers an absolutely scathing series of retorts about the Jews' badass credentials while hurling Jojo around the room like a ragdoll.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: The only effect that living in a cubbyhole for at least several months has on Elsa's appearance is that her hair is unkempt. In one scene, she calls herself a "dirty Jew" (both commenting on her physical state and sardonically referencing Nazi propaganda), which prompts Jojo to give her a bath, but she never really looked dirty to begin with. She remains attractive enough throughout the film for Jojo to develop quite a crush on her.
• Creepy Good: From Jojo's perspective, she acts like a creepy wraith who lives in his walls, and she indulges him with tales about Jews' secret demonic powers, but she's obviously a good person who has understandably become embittered by her tragic circumstances.
• Dead Person Impersonation: When the Gestapo starts snooping around the house, Elsa pretends to be Jojo's deceased sister Inge. Jojo later suggests doing it on a more permanent basis.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Elsa claims that she has a boyfriend named Nathan whom she plans to reunite with once the war is over. She later reveals that Nathan died from tuberculosis over a year ago.
• Hidden Depths: She shows some remarkable wisdom for a girl her age in her situation where Jojo is concerned. She realizes something about him he doesn't, and perhaps even his mother doesn't.
  Elsa: You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a 10-year-old kid, who likes swastikas and likes dressing up in a funny uniform, and wants to be part of a club. But you're not one of them.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Elsa comes off as very confrontational with Jojo, almost like a Big Sister Bully, but eventually warms up to him and becomes something of a Cool Big Sis to him.
• The Lost Lenore: Her fiancé Nathan is revealed to have died a year ago. She clings to a fantasy of him coming to rescue her as a coping mechanism.
• My Fist Forgives You: She slaps Jojo pretty hard at the end for lying to her by saying the Germans had repelled the Allies from Berlin (in order to keep her from leaving), but seems to let the lie go after that.
• Replacement Goldfish: Rosie tells Elsa that she reminds her of her deceased daughter, Inge.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She's first introduced threatening and bullying Jojo, but becomes much kinder towards him and acts more like an older sister by the end of the movie.
• Trickster Girlfriend: Downplayed; she doesn't actually become a girlfriend for Jojo due to their large age difference, but she is very much aware of his crush on her, and loves playing jokes on him.

"Adolf Hitler"

"Adolf Hitler"

Played By: Taika Waititi

Nazi Germany's beloved Fuhrer as imagined by a 10-year-old boy. Jojo pictures Hitler as his best friend and an eccentric, supportive father figure.

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• Adolf Hitlarious: For the first half of the film. As Jojo begins to question Nazi ideology, Adolf becomes less whimsical and moves closer to the unhinged and vicious mass-murderer he was in reality.
• Affably Evil: Spends much of the film as a kooky genuine friend to Jojo, despite being a manifestation of one of the evilest men in history. Subverted hard once Jojo starts to see Nazism for what it really is, at which point the venomous monster he really is begins to rises to the surface.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: His last-ditch attempt to bully Jojo back into Nazi ideology very quickly fails, and the last thing he does before Jojo kicks him out the window is to appeal to nostalgia for their former imaginary friendship.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The (imaginary) living embodiment of Jojo's indoctrination by the Nazi Party.
• Artistic License – History: As a result of Waititi refusing to dignify Hitler by doing research, several of this Adolf's quirks go against the real one's values. For one, he's a smoker, when Hitler hated smoking. However, it's justified in the film—As the Hitler in the film is the product of Jojo's imagination based on shallow Nazi ideals, naturally he wouldn't get all of Hitler's facts straight either.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Despite initially appearing to be Adolf Hitlarious, once Jojo questions the Nazi ideology, he gradually stops being funny.
• Big Bad: The movie is all about Jojo slowly growing out of his misguided belief in Nazi ideals. "Adolf" is the embodiment of said ideals. Do the math.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts friendly and supportive to Jojo throughout the film, but he is an embodiment of the Nazis' indoctrination as perceived through the eyes of a child, and is always trying to lead Jojo astray.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: A Running Gag. Imaginary Hitler repeatedly smokes cigarettes due to stress, and keeps on offering Jojo some, until Jojo snaps at him that a ten-year-old can't smoke. Ironically enough, the real Hitler quit smoking before he entered politics, and even ran anti-smoking campaigns aimed at the German public.
• Compliment Backfire: He's a master of building up Jojo's confidence while cruelly reminding him of his insecurities, such as the scars on his face from the grenade.
• Cool Uncle: Exaggerated. He uses modern slang and speaking inflections to present himself as a cool and relatable role model for Jojo despite the film being set in 1940s Germany.
• Evil Mentor: Though he hides it well.
• Faux Affably Evil: At first, Jojo's version of Hitler does seem to care about Jojo. When Jojo is taunted by the other kids, he attempts to cheer him up and convince him that he's better equipped for survival than them, but he turns into this when he appears to Jojo after the real Hitler's committed suicide; he completely disregards the fact that he's made friends with Elsa and demands that they turn "it" in to the Gestapo.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He's completely even-tempered for the first half of the film, but after Jojo begins to befriend Elsa, he becomes much more unstable and flies into his "real" self's characteristic hateful rants at the drop of a hat.
• Hate Sink: Subverted. While he's an imaginary friend based off one of the most evil people in history, he might be too goofy and comedic to hate. Until the end, that is.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Invoked for satire and Black Comedy. Jojo sincerely views Hitler as a heroic idol, which is, unfortunately, Truth in Television for many indoctrinated children raised in Nazi Germany.
• Imaginary Friend: He's this for Jojo, as pretty much a more ineffectual, flamboyant version of Adolf Hitler, up until his final scene or two.
• Laughably Evil: He is an Adolf Hitlarious portrayal, after all. Conversely, some of the movie's creepier moments occur when he stops acting funny.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The more Jojo starts questioning Nazi ideals, the more the image of Hitler in his mind turns from kind to wrathful. Notably, his second-to-last appearance has him screaming out a speech that, contrary to his demeanor up to that point, would not have sounded out of place coming from the real Hitler.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's a version of Hitler, so of course he's a villain, but he spends much of the movie being a goofy best friend who just so happens to believe in Aryan supremacy and the Third Reich's domination of the world. However, as Jojo gradually sees the Nazi ideology for what it really is, "Hitler" becomes more and more aggressive and maniacal, i.e. more like the real Adolf Hitler.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's a mass murdering dictator, but he acts like a whimsical teenager to Jojo. He loses the whimsy after his blistering tirade to Jojo, but still acts petty and petulant, angrily kicking the table after telling Jojo to act his age.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: A weird downplayed example of this trope, in which the "clown" doesn't vanish, but becomes less funny. Hitler starts out as Jojo's whimsical imaginary friend, but as the movie gets darker and Jojo confronts the insanity of Nazism, Hitler becomes meaner and meaner, until the end when he's an unhinged maniac and then a pathetic wretch.
• There Was a Door: At one point, he dives out of Jojo's bedroom window like a superhero after delivering an encouraging speech.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Gradually, he goes from being Jojo's silly imaginary friend to a raving maniac, i.e. acting more like the real Hitler.
• Toxic Friend Influence: All of Hitler's advice tends to backfire badly for Jojo. In the end, Jojo realizes that Hitler is a megalomaniac and literally kicks him out of his life, sending him flying through his bedroom window.
• Villainous Breakdown: His final appearance (after Jojo learns about the real Hitler's suicide) depicts him as a desperate disheveled wreck with fresh bullet wounds in his head, and he begins by trying to angrily bully Jojo into putting his Nazi armband back on. When Jojo rejects him, he's reduced to stammering and begging pathetically for a "little heil" for old time's sake, which Jojo responds to by kicking him out the window.
  Hitler: H-heil me? For old time's sake? Heil me, little man! Heil, just a little heil, please?
  Jojo: Fuck off, Hitler! (Sparta kicks Hitler out the window)

Captain Klenzendorf

Captain Klenzendorf

^{War outfit} 

Played By: Sam Rockwell

The commandant of the Hitler Youth camp.

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• Affably Evil: From his very first scene, it's clear that he's not a true believer in Nazi ideology.
• Ambiguously Gay: He has a somewhat campy demeanor, and is suspiciously close with his subordinate Finkel. This is further reinforced by Klenzendorf and Finkel incorporating pink triangles, symbols used in Nazi concentration camps to denote homosexuals, into their flamboyant last stand uniforms. Not to mention his Guy Liner make-up. Waititi later confirmed in a Q&A that at least Klenzendorf is gay, though word's still out on Finkel.
• Bling of War: When the Allies invade the town, he is shown putting up a token resistance while wearing a very flamboyant uniform he designed himself.
• Career-Ending Injury: Although he would have preferred to stay on the frontlines, his blind eye has brought him back home.
• Canon Foreigner: He has no counterpart in Caging Skies.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite appearing as a bumbling, jaded, and incompetent camp instructor, Klenzendorf's list of awards and decorations show that he is anything but, having earned both the 2nd and 1st classes of the Iron Cross (for bravery), the Tank Destruction Badge, the Wound Badge (gold, indicating having been wounded at least five times), and the Close-Combat Clasp (bronze, for 15 close-combat engagements).
• Dying Smirk: After saving Jojo's life by treating him as a Jew while in Russian custody, Captain Klenzendorf is dragged away to be summarily executed, all the while bearing a stoic smile on his face, even as Jojo futilely screams and tries to struggle out of an Allied soldier's grip to save him.
• Foil: To Adolf. Adolf starts out as someone Jojo looks up to but eventually reveals his loathsome self when Jojo starts to question Nazi ideology, sees Elsa as vermin, shows no sympathy when Rosie is hanged, and dies an undignified death. Klenzendorf starts out as aloof towards Jojo, but gradually warms up to him, shows mercy to Elsa, is genuinely apologetic regarding Rosie's death, and dies with dignity.
• The Gunslinger: At the start of the Hitler Youth camp retreat, Klenzendorf shows off his shooting skills in the most over-the-top manner he can, after recently being blinded in one eye, no less.
• Handicapped Badass: Despite missing an eye, he's still quite good at shooting, managing to hit targets precisely (which is likely unrealistic, given the lack of depth perception from losing an eye).
• Heroic Sacrifice: He is rounded up with other soldiers to be executed by the Soviets, and because he is still wearing an army jacket, Jojo ends up with him. To save Jojo from the firing squad, Klenzendorf takes Jojo's jacket and begins calling him a Jew and spitting at him, so the Russians think he's not a Nazi and drag him away.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Klenzendorf at first appears to just be a Jaded Washout, but he clearly cares deeply for Rosie and Jojo, and any time he needs to give token praise to Hitler/Nazism, he barely hides his distaste. He eventually lies to save Elsa from the Gestapo, and then lies again to save Jojo from the Soviets.
• Jaded Washout: He was once a frontline soldier, but losing an eye in combat got him demoted, to his clear chagrin. He does have some Hidden Depths that are revealed in time.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He seems like an idiot who doesn't care at all for his job, and at multiple points lets it slip that he doesn't see the Nazis winning. It’s clear when the Gestapo show up he's not only far smarter than they are, as he figures out Elsa's true identity, but he covers for her and later sacrifices himself to save Jojo. It’s apparent from his prior rank that he was a great soldier, but due to disagreeing with the politics of the war effort, he has been deliberately undermining them by acting like an idiot.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He is a German soldier who fights for the Nazis, but is clearly loyal to his nation above its politics. He seems uninterested in Nazi rhetoric, viewing it with mild condescension, but follows and toes the party line because they're in charge.
• Red Right Hand: His milky-colored blind eye paints him as a dubious character, though he's later revealed to not actually be that bad of a guy who secretly wants the Nazis to lose.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: In his opening speech, he says that he was wounded in action and reassigned to supervise the Hitler Youth camp. Given how he later barely hides his contempt for Hitler, he likely got in trouble for anti-Nazi views.
• Redemption Equals Death: In a way, despite his misgivings towards the Nazi government, his Heroic Sacrifice can be interpreted as this for his service to their military anyway.
• Secret-Keeper: He knows that Elsa isn’t really Inge because they don’t look anything alike and she got Inge's birthday wrong, but doesn’t tell anyone else.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: It's implied he knew about Rosie's secret anti-Nazi work all along, but he never told anyone else, and only tells Jojo once the Allies take the town, right before his own death. She doesn't seem to have suspected him of knowing.
• Shoo the Dog: He spits at Jojo and calls him a Jew in order to get Jojo dragged away from possibly following him into execution.
• Token Good Teammate: He's this for the Nazis present in the film. He treats Jojo well despite him being different from all the other Hitler Youths, lies to the Gestapo to keep Elsa from being outed as a Jew, and even sacrifices his own life to save Jojo from execution by firing squad. It's even implied that he knew Rosie was part of the anti-Nazi movement, but turned a blind eye to keep her safe, and might have been involved himself. During the final stand of the town, he and Finkel are clearly not shooting at anything, but merely putting up a token effort in order to hide the fact they don't want Germany to win. Klenzendorf's loyalty is with Germany, but he doesn't support any Nazi politics, and some of his apparent incompetence is more likely him putting zero effort in order to undermine the Nazis. This is taken further when Word of Gay confirms that he is in fact a homosexual and therefore has very good reasons for wanting the Nazis to lose.
• Villain of Another Story: As a Nazi commander he would be seen as the boss villain to be defeated by the allied troops, but within the same story he is never an antagonist for Jojo and even saves his and Elsa's lives.
• War Is Glorious: He doesn't seem to really care about the Nazi cause, but he does enjoy the war itself, and is pretty disgruntled that his Career-Ending Injury has caused him to be relegated to leading state-sponsored summer camps instead of fighting on the front lines.

Finkel

Freddy Finkel

Played By: Alfie Allen

Captain Klenzendorf's right-hand man.

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• Alliterative Name: Freddy Finkel
• Ambiguously Gay: His relation with Klenzendorf seems to go beyond the professional. There is also his final uniform being covered with pink triangles, which Nazis used to identify "homosexuals" in the camps.
• Canon Immigrant: He wasn't in Caging Skies.
• The Dragon: He serves as Klenzendorf's right hand.
• Literal-Minded: The misunderstanding when Klenzendorf asks him to get hold of German shepherds — Klenzendorf meant dogs, but Finkel thought he meant actual shepherds.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Despite he and Klenzendorf serving the Nazi system, they are both decent people overall.
• The Quiet One: He tends to let Klenzendorf do all the talking, only backing him up occasionally like a hypeman.
• Satellite Character: He has no characterization outside of being Klenzendorf's associate.
• Uncertain Doom: We don't see him again after he and Klenzendorf show off their flamboyant uniforms during the battle, but it is safe to say he was likely killed. Further evidence to suggest that Finkel dies is that Klenzendorf can be seen clutching what appears to be Finkel's cape after the battle when he and Jojo reunite.

Fraulein Rahm

Fraulein Rahm

^{Nazi outfit} 

Played By: Rebel Wilson

The matron to the Hitler Youth.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: In Caging Skies, she was less vile.
• Affably Evil: She is a cheerfully immoral Nazi leader who spouts off plenty of Nazi rhetoric and sends children off to die during the city's last stand.
• Asshole Victim: She presumably dies in an explosion seconds after sending a child out as a suicide bomber.
• Baby Factory: She proudly states she's had eighteen children in service of her country.
• Bait the Dog: Despite being a Nazi, she acts like a Genki Girl most of the time, but in her final scene she is sacrificing German children without complaint.
• Beware the Silly Ones: She may be funny due to her actress' comedic chops, but that doesn't stop her from using children as suicide bombers.
• Fat Bitch: She's played by plus-sized actress Rebel Wilson, and is a Nazi who Would Hurt a Child during the city's Last Stand.
• Female Misogynist: She sees women and girls as little more than breeders and housekeepers.
• Hypocrite: In spite of her traditionalist views on women, she's clearly chomping at the bit to jump into action and fight some Allies during the invasion, not to mention knowingly sending a German child to his death.
• Hypocritical Humour: She tells the Hitler Youth that they are the most advanced and civilized race in the world, then announces that their next activity will be burning books. She also uses children as suicide bombers.
• Laughably Evil: She is played by Rebel Wilson, after all.
• Shouting Shooter: Shouts "DDDDDIIIIIIIEEEEEEE" while running into battle with her machine gun.
• Uncertain Doom: After sending all the Hitler Youth kids off to die, she grabs a massive machine gun and walks around a corner to join the fight. And then a shell explodes right where she would be standing. While it’s quite likely that she died in the blast, what happened to her is ultimately left unknown.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the invasion, she simply tells one of her pupils to just run up to an Allied soldier and hug him. What she doesn't tell the boy is that she's planted a live explosive on him.

Yorki

Yorki

Played By: Archie Yates

Jojo's second-best friend.

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• Adaptational Name Change: Kippi in the book.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Kippi stepped on baby chicks and thought dying for the Nazis would be a glorious send-off.
• Affably Evil: He's part of the Hitler Youth, but doesn't seem to harbor any real prejudice towards Jews outside of what propaganda tells him, and generally comes across as a Nice Guy.
• Children Are Innocent: He survives the invasion despite being on the frontlines with the Nazis, seemingly because none of the Allies want to murder an obviously confused child.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, such as the "not a good time to be a Nazi" quote, as well as a resigned "Oh God" when the rocket he drops destroys a house.
• Dirty Commies: He thinks communists have sex with dogs.
• Dumbass Has a Point: In some of his childish ramblings, he unwittingly makes some astute observations on Germany's situation, commenting on the hypocrisy that the Nazis would ally with the Japanese since they "don't look very Aryan", and that Jojo's issues with Jews are far from their biggest concerns when the Allies are knocking at the door.
• Fat Best Friend: He's chubby and Jojo's only real friend. He's the ditzy subtype, cheerfully swallowing whatever ridiculous propaganda he gets told but without any sign of actual malice. When Jojo tells him he has a Jewish girlfriend, Yorki congratulates him unreservedly.
• The Fool: Yorki isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he's Jojo's Only Friend, lacks any real malice despite being in the Hitler Youth, doesn't have any issues with Jojo's mother harboring a Jewish girl, and survives the end of the war when so many other of his fellow child soldiers are being gunned down by the Allies, on nothing but dumb luck.
• Improbable Infant Survival: He survives the whole show, lampshading to Jojo that he seemingly cannot die.
• Innocent Bigot: Notable in the final battle scene, where Yorki blindly restates ridiculously false statements about the Russians, but Jojo (having undergone his Character Development) doesn't believe it for a second.
• Kind Hearted Simpleton: He's naive enough to believe the most outlandish rumors about anyone Hitler hates, but with each new prejudice that comes up, the previous one fades away.
• The Millstone: The first time we see Yorki practice with a knife, he wounds a boy by accident. During the invasion, Yorki absent-mindedly drops a Panzerschreck to wave to Jojo, which launches a missile into a corner shop.
  • Jojo tells Yorki no less than three times that there's a Jew in his house. Jews are supposed to be reported to the Gestapo, but Yorki either ignores the revelation or focuses on a minor, secondary detail.
• Only Sane Man.
  Yorki "There are bigger things to worry about than Jews, Jojo."
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's a Kind Hearted Simpleton who happens to be a HJ.
• Spared by the Adaptation: His book counterpart dies in an air raid. It's lampshaded when he claims he can’t die.

Captain Deertz

Captain Deertz

Played By: Stephen Merchant

A Gestapo inspector.

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• Artistic License – Biology: The Twitter account for the movie insists he has four testicles. Those familiar with the joke get it, but for those who don't - Hitler had one ball because he lost the other in WW1.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He and his goons are maybe Laughably Evil, but they are still Gestapo. Hanging Jojo's mother proves they aren't a laughing matter.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He sports one before leaving Jojo's home. Take a look◊.
• Canon Immigrant: He wasn't in the book.
• Department of Redundancy Department: He insists on his colleagues heil-ing Hitler with every introduction, which means inspections go on for much longer than they need to and civilians gradually get less enthusiastic with each salute.
• Evil Is Bigger: Look how◊ he towers over everybody else.
• Faux Affably Evil: He is a smug, smirking Gestapo officer who is thoroughly polite while shaking down the family of a suspected (or already caught) resistance member. The way he considers Jojo's answers about Rosie very carefully and looms menacingly over Klenzendorf make it pretty clear that he's just a creep hiding behind a false smile.
• Karma Houdini: He is seen in the background, wearing civilian clothes, generally ignored by American soldiers who have German soldiers as prisoners.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: That being said, he is seen rounded up with others from his squad, and if the Allied soldiers discovered that he was in the Gestapo, he would probably have faced prosecution and severe punishment afterwards.
• Knight of Cerebus: Though he is Laughably Evil, his appearance and the interrogation scene following are notably tenser than anything else in the movie up to that point, and it's only afterwards that things start taking a dark turn for Jojo, starting with discovering his mother's death. He's even this In-Universe to an extent, as Jojo is left noticeably withdrawn and intimidated when around him, and it's after meeting him and getting an idea of what a "real" Nazi is like that Jojo's vision of Adolf starts updating to fall more in line with the real thing, as the facade of Nazism is laid bare to Jojo.
• Laughably Evil: He's one of those satirical Those Wacky Nazis characters.
• Lean and Mean: Captain Deertz is played by the famously tall and skinny Stephen Merchant. His imposing height and unusual slimness help add to his menace. Not only is he the tallest of the Gestapo, but when Klenzendorf stands next to him to ask why they're investigating Jojo's house, the top of Klenzendorf's cap is a head shorter than Deertz. Taika Waititi had Merchant stand on a box to make himself look even taller than he is.
• Looks Like Orlok: He's tall, thin, has a ghostly complexion, and wears a long black coat.
• Secret Police: He's an officer in the Gestapo, and shows up at Jojo's house to snoop around for any signs of treason. It's implied that by this point, Rosie has already been caught and hanged with her compatriots, and he and his squad may be looking for anything that would lead them to other resistance members.